During the German occupation, roughly 30,000 prisoners of war were held across some 50 camps in Nordland. From 1942, they were forced to extend the road and railway northward through impossible terrain. The stretch between Rognan and Saksenvik along the east side of Saltdalsfjorden became known as Blodveien, the Blood Road, a name the prisoners themselves gave it.
The Botn camp near Rognan was among the earliest and most brutal. Around 2,500 Yugoslav prisoners arrived in summer 1942; by the following summer, roughly 750 were still alive. The SS initially ran the camps with extreme cruelty before the Wehrmacht took over. Men died from executions, hangings, starvation, exhaustion, cold, and disease. At liberation in May 1945, almost 10,000 POWs were still in the Saltdal area.
The Yugoslav war cemetery at Botn holds 1,657 graves, the largest concentration of Yugoslav war dead in Norway. It sits on the hillside east of the valley, near the former camp site. A German cemetery with around 4,730 burials lies adjacent. On the old Blood Road itself, a red cross is painted on rock where a prisoner once marked the spot with the blood of a fellow prisoner who was shot there.
The Blodveimuseet in Rognan documents this history through photographs, artifacts, and personal testimonies. It is housed within the Saltdal Museum complex, about two kilometres north of Rognan centre.
A connected tragedy: on 27 November 1944, the cargo ship MS Rigel was carrying 2,248 Soviet, Polish, and Serbian prisoners from the same camp system southward along the coast. British planes attacked, mistaking her for a troopship. 2,572 people died, making it the largest maritime disaster in Norwegian waters. The 267 survivors were saved when the captain grounded the ship on Rosøya. The victims are buried at Tjøtta international war cemetery further south on the Helgeland coast.
The Botn camp near Rognan was among the earliest and most brutal. Around 2,500 Yugoslav prisoners arrived in summer 1942; by the following summer, roughly 750 were still alive. The SS initially ran the camps with extreme cruelty before the Wehrmacht took over. Men died from executions, hangings, starvation, exhaustion, cold, and disease. At liberation in May 1945, almost 10,000 POWs were still in the Saltdal area.
The Yugoslav war cemetery at Botn holds 1,657 graves, the largest concentration of Yugoslav war dead in Norway. It sits on the hillside east of the valley, near the former camp site. A German cemetery with around 4,730 burials lies adjacent. On the old Blood Road itself, a red cross is painted on rock where a prisoner once marked the spot with the blood of a fellow prisoner who was shot there.
The Blodveimuseet in Rognan documents this history through photographs, artifacts, and personal testimonies. It is housed within the Saltdal Museum complex, about two kilometres north of Rognan centre.
A connected tragedy: on 27 November 1944, the cargo ship MS Rigel was carrying 2,248 Soviet, Polish, and Serbian prisoners from the same camp system southward along the coast. British planes attacked, mistaking her for a troopship. 2,572 people died, making it the largest maritime disaster in Norwegian waters. The 267 survivors were saved when the captain grounded the ship on Rosøya. The victims are buried at Tjøtta international war cemetery further south on the Helgeland coast.